


Paying Back

by whoneedsapublisher



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, Older Nico and Nozomi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-25
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-17 15:48:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16098800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whoneedsapublisher/pseuds/whoneedsapublisher
Summary: Nico is living together with the girl of her dreams. It sounds perfect, but unfortunately, Nico happens not to be actually DATING the girl in question. And Nozomi's around-the-house behaviours are only rubbing it in.





	Paying Back

Things couldn’t go on like this.

Well, okay, actually, they probably could.

Honestly, that was what really sucked about it. If it was some kind of grand drama, at least there would be a certain satisfaction to that. Even if things went bad, there would be an inevitability to it. “What could I have done? Things couldn’t go on like that forever.”

But unfortunately, her life with Nozomi was actually pretty tolerable. Comfortable, even. While it had started off as exciting and heart pounding, living in the same house as her quickly became normal, and at some point Nico realized that it felt as natural as living at home with her siblings. If it wasn’t for the fact that she’d been in love with Nozomi for more than a third of her life and _still_ wasn’t any closer to getting in her pants than she had been in highscool despite sleeping in the same damn house every night, it would have even been pleasant. As it was, it was slowly driving her insane.

The problem was that it really _was_ comfortable. Nico would sometimes go entire days not even thinking about her frustrated romantic aspirations, just being distracted by daily life. Nozomi not doing her chores, one of her protegeés getting a chance to debut, a new development in the idol world… for someone who was constantly in contact with the subject of her unrequited love, she spent a lot of time not pining.

But eventually, love would come up somehow, or Nozomi would do something sweet, or, even worst, wander through the house in just a towel, and Nico would be rudely reminded of just how much she wanted to tape “girl” to the front of their current title of “friends”.

What didn’t help was how unsatisfyingly abrupt and uncool the start of this whole mess had been. She wished that it had been a really romantic moment of realization, like when Nozomi had helped design her outfit for her “last performance as a solo idol”, and explained that whole mess to the rest of μ’s. Or when Nozomi had admitted how guilty she felt about not doing anything to help Nico until her third year, even though she knew Nico was struggling. It would have been wonderful if, in one of those moments of emotional vulnerability where Nozomi had been there for her, she’d realized that Nozomi was the only woman for her, and probably always would be.

But the truth was, all those times, Nico had just realized what a good friend Nozomi was. How important she was to her platonically. The point where she’d realized she was in _love_ with Nozomi was when they were changing into their idol costumes. They were backless ones, and while she was putting on the top, Nozomi had slipped on Rin’s carelessly discarded shirt and fallen over. Nico had turned around at the sound of Nozomi’s yelp to see if she was okay, and been treated to the sight of Nozomi sitting up and rubbing her lower back, too distracted to cover her bare chest.

It was _the worst_. Nico was an idol! Her love story should have been poetic and sentimental and sweet, some grand gesture that showed that they’d be together forever. It should _not_ be “I saw what amazing tits Nozomi had and realized that I wanted to suck them waaaay too much for my feelings to be platonic”. What was she, a horny teenager?

Well, at time she _had_ been a horny teenager, but that was beside the point.

And then after she figured out she was in love with Nozomi, what had she done? Had she confessed to her? Had she sent her a love letter? Had she made a dramatic proclamation and expressed her feelings like a courageous young maiden should?

Of course not. She’d proceeded to do nothing about it but sneak glances at Nozomi for the rest of highschool, and then continued to do nothing for most of a decade.

In her defense, there’d been some pretty good reasons for not confessing. When she first realized it, confessing was obviously a bad idea. Regardless of whether Nozomi liked her back or not, introducing a romantic element to the group dynamic of μ’s could be catastrophic. As much as she wanted to date Nozomi, she loved μ’s. She wouldn’t risk ruining it over a crush.

So she buried her feelings and pretended they didn’t exist, just like she’d buried the crushing despair that had weighed down on her when she’d fought to become an idol for two lonely years. Maybe someone saw through her, and realized that sometimes her gaze lingered on Nozomi for a little too long, and that she brushed against Nozomi a little too often. But if they did, they didn’t say anything. Her secret remained secret.

After graduation would have been the obvious time to confess. μ’s was disbanded, so there was no longer anything to lose, right?

But of course, that was sort of when she started trying to debut as a solo idol.

It wasn’t like no one had ever violated the love ban. Plenty of idols had dated in secret. Plus, it was easier to hide a girlfriend than a boyfriend- no one would be suspicious of you hanging out with a female “friend” all the time. Still, Nico didn’t want a hidden scandal threatening to destroy her career at any moment, and besides, she would have felt guilty offering Nozomi a relationship that they had to hide. So she’d put it off again, burying herself in her work and letting that distract her from what her heart stubbornly continued to demand.

Of course, “idol” was a job with a very obvious time limit. It was wonderful while it lasted,but it couldn’t last forever. Popularity would always wane, and the older she got, the harder it was to be successful as an idol. So Nico decided to end things on her own terms. Better to retire while people would still care than to try and drag out the end of her career until everyone was just _relieved_ that she’d quit.

That’s when she should have confessed, of course. As soon as she announced that she was leaving the idol business, she should have come right home and told Nozomi that she loved her. Flat out, first thing, no delaying. “Hey Nozomi, I quit being an idol, wanna date me?”

But she hadn’t. She delayed and made excuses, just like she had been for years. She wanted everything to calm down a little first. She wanted to avoid any rumours that her and Nozomi had been dating all along. She didn’t want to risk Nozomi had rejecting her and leaving her alone when she was going through a big change in life. Alright, maybe that last one was a pretty reasonable reason. Frankly, she had enough emotions to wrestle with. But regardless of how good her excuses were, they were still just excuses. She still hadn’t confessed.

But, then again, Nozomi hadn’t either.

She’d had just as many chances as Nico, after all. They’d gotten a place together out of highschool near Nozomi’s university- for purely practical reasons, of course, and Nico had turned down living with Maki instead on entirely rational grounds and not at all because she had a vested interest in living with Nozomi. And then when Nico started touring a got her own apartment, well, she needed _someone_ to house sit, and when Nozomi’s lease ran out it seemed silly for her to get her own place when Nico’s place was so big and she was there most of the time anyway…

And so, they’d (more or less) lived together the whole time. Even when she was touring, she and Nozomi were in constant contact, talking daily and meeting in person whenever they could. And yet, Nozomi had never showed a hint of romantic interest. That was something of a _sign_ , Nico was pretty sure.

It really was the worst. Nico was living a love story that was completely undramatic, unromantic, and unrequited.

* * *

Nico had been thinking recently about what sucked the most about her situation (other than not getting to kiss Nozomi or touch her boobs, obviously), and she’d come to the decision that it was probably how infuriatingly comfortable Nozomi was around her.

That wasn’t to say that she wanted Nozomi to be _uncomfortable_ around her, of course. But there was a point where it started to feel almost mocking. “Oh, I shouldn’t come out of the bath in only my towel and laze around on the couch barely covered with my legs completely bare, but it’s only Nico here, so it’s fine.” “Oh, I shouldn’t wear this thin white t-shirt when it’s the summer and I’m sweating so it’s totally see-through, but no one but Nico is around, so it’s okay.” “Oh, I shouldn’t _wander around the house in nothing but my goddamn underwear_ looking for my eyeliner, but it’s _just Nico_ who will see it so it’s _no problem!_ ”

It was torture. Sure, you’d think it would be great. Free show, right? Yeah, right. Nico couldn’t even glance over at her without being wracked with guilt. Not that she could _stop_ herself looking.

God, she must be so transparent. Nico was fairly sure she stopped herself from blushing, but there was only so much she could do to hide her attention being drawn laser-like to Nozomi whenever she pulled one of those stunts, and she was sure that glancing at Nozomi and then immediately looking away wasn’t exactly James Bond levels of espionage.

Weirdly, though, Nozomi never teased her for it.

Nozomi had changed since highschool (they all had) but her enjoyment of messing with Nico hadn’t. She still delighted in catching Nico out, poking fun at her in her faux innocent way. But for some reason, she kept completely quiet on Nico Ni’s obvious glowing weak spot regarding Nozomi’s flirtations with nudity. It couldn’t _possibly_ be that she didn’t notice. Even if Nico wasn’t aware of how obvious she was, Nozomi was always irritatingly perceptive about Nico when it came to things like this. Frankly, Nico was surprised she’d even managed to keep her crush secret.

But clearly _something_ was holding her back from mocking Nico about this. And, being eternally unable to leave well enough alone, Nico decided that she wasn’t going to take that for granted. It was time for a little payback.

* * *

“I’ll take the first bath tonight,” Nico said airly, as the show they finished came to an end. It was Saturday, and they’d been lazing on the couch watching Netflix. Some new foreign drama that Nozomi was fond of and Nico… didn’t hate. Sure, maybe to an untrained eye, she seemed really invested when the show was on, but it wasn’t like she thought about it _that_ much when they weren’t watching it. It was just some dumb drama, after all. The great Nico Ni wouldn’t get all worked up about whether the Amy and Markus got together, or whether Amy ended up with Glenn who was _clearly_ a better match for her, and it was ridiculous that she was even _considering_ Markus when there was someone like Glenn who was basically infinitely more-

“Really?” Nozomi raised an eyebrow, and glanced over at the clock. “A little early for that, isn’t it?”

“I… just want to get it done with early, is all,” Nico lied. Truth be told, she just couldn’t stand waiting any longer to put her plan into action. The more time she spent sitting around, the more nervous she got. She’d… admittedly forgotten to be nervous when they were actually watching the show, because she’d been distracted how _utterly_ absurd Sara was being about Markus and Amy as if they were _meant to be_ when clearly Glenn had been there for Amy _every time_ Markus had done something stupid and driven Amy off. Which was, of course, not a big deal, really, it was just a show, but, well, it had been a good opportunity to focus on something trivial rather than her plan, was all. It was all obviously a calculated move to stop Nozomi from noticing anything. And now that the show was _over_ , she wasn’t distracted any more, and already she was faltering.

Trying to act as normal as possible, Nico got up and stretched exaggeratedly before hustling towards the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind her.

* * *

It wasn’t uncommon for Nico to spend a while in the bath. At first, it had been more because on the rare occasions that she got to take a bath, she was so beat up from her job that she needed a long soak to start melting away the tension and aches throughout her body. Now, though, it was more just because she _could_. She had the free time to just do nothing but relax in a bath for basically as long as she wanted. She didn’t have to be mentally calculating how much sleep she was going to lose with every second she spent in the bath, she could just lay back and enjoy herself.

Today, though, she was taking a long time for entirely less pleasant reasons: she was putting off what came next.

I wasn’t like she was doing anything _too_ crazy, right? She was just giving Nozomi a taste of her own medicine. If Nozomi complained, then Nico could just point out the hypocrisy of it, and maybe Nozomi would knock it off with her constant private shows. And if she _didn’t_ say anything, well, then what was there to be embarrassed about, right? If Nozomi didn’t even care, maybe it would be a little bit of blow to Nico’s ego, but at least it wouldn’t be a whole _thing._

So she just had to… do it.

Right now.

...Or maybe in a couple more minutes.

* * *

More than a few minutes later, but thankfully not so long later that her bath was _suspiciously_ long, Nico emerged from the bathroom wrapped in her towel.

Normally, her next step would be to make a beeline for her room and change into her pyjamas. But not today. No, today she would be heading back into the living room.

Taking one last deep breath, she put on her most confident face and strode through the hallway.

“Done in the bath?” Nozomi asked over her shoulder, eyes still on the television. Well, they wouldn’t be for long.

“Yeah. It’s free whenever you’re ready,” Nico said, making sure to walk in front of Nozomi on her way to flop down onto the couch. She tried to make it look casual, but her sitting down was very carefully calculated. After all, she was looking for “risque” not “actually just flashing Nozomi”. That might be _slightly_ more than she was going for. “If you’re not going to take a bath yet, do you wanna watch another episode? I mean, only if _you_ want to, of course. I don’t really care about that show or anything.”

Silence.

Nico turned to Nozomi to see what the matter was.

It was… not the reaction Nico had expected.

She was half expecting Nozomi to just smirk at her and make some snide comment. ‘Oh my, Niccochi, taking my lead? I’m glad I could convert you to my ways. Don’t worry, I won’t tell the tabloids.’ If she escaped that cruel fate, she figured the next most likely thing would be Nozomi being a little uncomfortable, allowing Nico the chance to demand concessions in exchange for promising not to do it again. There was nothing like being on the receiving end to make you to mend your wicked ways, after all. She’d also considered the possibility that Nozomi would completely no-sell it, not even noticing that anything was amiss, or not bothering to comment.

What she hadn’t counted on was Nozomi staring at her wide eyed like a deer caught in the headlights.

“Uh, hello?” Nico said, waving her hand in front of Nozomi’s eyes. “Earth to Nozomi? Super idol offering to watch more of your foreign drama?”

“Oh! Right!” Nozomi squeaked, snapping out of her trance and shaking herself. “Sure, we can watch another episode.”

She hastily scrambled for the remote, fumbling it at least twice before she managed to grab it and start navigating to Netflix. Nico stared at her in disbelief as she selected the wrong thing at least twice as her eyes kept darting away from the television and then rocketing back. What on earth was going on?

Finally, despite herself, Nozomi managed to start the show and quickly dimmed the lights, maybe a little more than was necessary, making it dark enough that it was hard to see her. Which also meant it was hard for Nozomi to see Nico.

Nico wasn’t _exactly_ sure what Nozomi’s reaction was about, but she wasn’t stupid. It was _very_ clear that Nico’s newfound shamelessness was the trigger, and if she wanted Nozomi to turn down her own shameless behaviour, she needed to get as much leverage as she could. So she reached out and turned the lights back up.

Nozomi looked over at her.

“Sorry, just wanted to paint my nails while we watch,” Nico said innocently. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“It’s fine,” Nozomi said. Her voice was disappointingly even.

Not discouraged, Nico put her leg up, letting her towel drape down teasingly and expose her leg up to her calves. Of course, Nico had worn shorts around Nozomi before, so it wasn’t like she was really showing her anything _new_ , but Nico knew only too well how different it was to see that far up someone’s leg when the rest of them was only covered by a towel.

Throughout the episode, Nozomi did a good job of trying to ignore it all. If Nico hadn’t been carefully watching her out of the corner of her eye, she probably wouldn’t have noticed how often Nozomi glanced away from the screen for a second before quickly looking back. Once the episode was over, Nozomi casually said that she was going to go ahead and take her bath now, and escaped before Nico could think of a way to protest.

That was kind of a problem. Clearly, Nozomi was uncomfortable with Nico parading about half-naked, but if was going to pretend like it didn’t bother her, what was Nico supposed to do then? It wasn’t like she _wanted_ to be doing this, she was just trying to get Nozomi to admit it was _weird!_ But if she was going to act like everything was fine, that just made things _worse_ , because she would feel like it was only fair for her to keep tormenting Nico with her own barely-dressed escapades.

Well, there was only one solution. She just had to escalate things until Nozomi couldn’t _possibly_ stay quiet.

* * *

It had been a day or two since her first attempt, and now it was time to step it up a notch.

The next step, obviously, was sleep clothes.

Nico had cute pyjamas that she normally wore, of course, as befitting an idol, but sacrifices had to be made. So one night she “accidentally” spilled a glass of orange juice into the drawer where she kept her pyjamas when getting out a pair. So, of course, with all of them in the wash at once, she couldn’t very well sleep in them. Really, what other choice did she have other than sleep in a pair of very cute panties and a t-shirt that was obviously too big, but not _too_ too big. Big enough to come down past her hips, but not _so_ big that it came down to her knees or anything. Long enough to cover her, but no _real_ replacement for a dress, no matter how much she acted like it. Nozomi didn’t need to know that she’d carefully picked out this shirt for that exact length. That could be Nico’s little secret. “It was just the first big shirt I grabbed” wasn’t any more outrageous a lie than the captions she’d put for social media shots, after all.

Honestly, who really believed that those posts were “just a quick snap”?

Well then, time for breakfast. Nico was planning on having some orange juice, maybe a piece of toast, some eggs, and a side of _revenge_.

Striding out of her room, Nico stretched exaggeratedly, letting her shirt ride up enough to give a tantalizing peek beneath it.

“Good morning Nozomi,” she said, calling on her considerable acting talent to hide her glee.

“Good morning, Ni… co…chi,” Nozomi attempted to say, glancing up from her phone and trailing off as she saw Nico’s outfit. “No pyjamas today?”

“All in the wash,” Nico said, with an exaggerated sigh. “I just threw on a shirt.”

“I see.” Cupping the side of her face in her hand, Nozomi looked at Nico ponderously. “I suppose this would be a bad time to tell you that my brother is visiting and he’s just in the other room…”

“WHAT?!” Nico shrieked, dropping down to the floor and pulling down the shirt over her legs. “Why didn’t you warn m-”

She paused for a moment, then glared at Nozomi. “You don’t even _have_ a brother!” she accused, and Nozomi looked mock surprised.

“Oh!” she said, smiling. “You’re right.”

”You jerk,” Nico grumbled, standing up and brushing herself off. Unbelievable. Nozomi had managed to regain the initiative even now. Nico supposed it had always been like that. Nozomi always seemed to have the upper hand in their interactions, no matter how hard Nico struggled.

Well, not today. Nozomi could play all the pranks she liked, she still kept awkwardly glancing over at Nico between bites.

Walking towards their kitchen, Nico started bustling around making her breakfast. Of course, Nico’s apartment was open plan. so the kitchen and the breakfast table were barely separated and Nozomi could still see her. And Nico was just _so_ clumsy today, she kept dropping things and had to bend over to pick them up! Oh, cruel fate.

Nico dared to glance behind her after she dropped another spoon, and saw Nozomi’s eyes glued to her and her fork frozen midway to her mouth, a piece of egg slowly slipping off it back onto the plate. Perfect. Any minute now, she was going to admit that she wasn’t comfortable with this and ask Nico to change. Victory was within Nico’s grasp, she was _sure_ of it.

But despite her obvious staring problem, that she tried to get under control as Nico wandered back to the table, Nozomi was keeping totally silent. Nico fought down the urge to grind her teeth. Flopping down in her chair, Nico ate her breakfast slowly, barely even noticing it as she plotted her next attack. Finally, she spoke up again.

“You know, this is pretty comfortable,” Nico said offhandedly as she took a bite of her toast. It was a little burnt. Stupid toaster. She really should replace it, but it had been a gift from Nozomi, and, well… “Maybe I’ll start doing it more often.”

“O-Oh, is that so?”

“Yeah,” Nico said, leaning forward to reach for the salt and noticing Nozomi suddenly looking at the ceiling. Oh, right. Big collar. Wow, she hadn’t even planned that one! She really _was_ good at this. “Maybe I’ll just do it all the time, even.”

“No!” Nozomi said strongly, slamming her fork down. Nico perked up. Had she finally gotten her? Had Nozomi finally cracked?

“Oh?” Nico asked, a smug grin starting to creep across her face. “Why not?”

“Because… your pyjamas are so cute, Niccochi,” Nozomi said, smiling back. “It would be such a waste not to wear them.”

Now Nico was the one fighting not to blush. Sure, it was an obvious ploy, but being called cute by the girl she liked sort of overrode the smart part of her brain.

“Well, I suppose that _is_ true,” she said reluctantly.

Damnit, she was not going to be thrown off her stride like this. Compliments could be enjoyed later! She was _flaunting_ right now. Was all her time as an idol just a waste?! Surely flaunting should be one of her most relevant job skills. Granted, her flaunting was a little less… sexual as an idol, but it was all the same idea, right?

“But maybe ‘cute’ shouldn’t be what I’m going for any more, you know?” Nico said, leaning back a little. “After all I’m not a school idol any more. Maybe I should look to upgrade to ‘sexy’ or ‘mature’. ‘Beautiful’, perhaps.”

“Really? I think cute still suits you, Niccochi,” Nozomi said, casually sipping her coffee. Was Nozomi subtly mocking her?! Saying she was “still cute” while drinking coffee, silently reminding Nico that _she_ drank coffee while Nico was still just drinking orange juice, just like she had as a child? Damnit!

“Oh?” Nico said, determined not to be deterred. “Don’t you think I’m sexy in this outfit?”

Nico stretched her arms out behind her, accentuating her chest and making her shirt ride up further. Nozomi glaced up from her food to look over Nico. Nico was sure she _intended_ it to be a casual glance, followed by some dismissive comment, but that wasn’t what happened. A casual glance turned into staring, and as the seconds dragged on without a peep from Nozomi, Nico felt a smirk creep onto her face again.

“So sexy that I have you speechless?” she asked smugly.

“I’m trying to figure out if you actually look any different than in highschool,” Nozomi said.

Nico flushed and glared at her. “I _do_ , thank you!” she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. Nozomi smiled and returned to eating, victorious.

This was going even worse than last time. Nozomi had completely stolen the initiative from her. What should have been Nico striking the decisive blow had turned into Nozomi deftly avoiding everything Nico tried and making her into a laughingstock.

It was no use. She’d lost this time. Still grumbling under her breath, Nico returned sullenly to her breakfast. Fine. This time was a failure. So what? She’d get her next time! She was sure of it.

* * *

Next time, it turned out, came very soon.

Nico was trying not to do it _all_ at once- it would be a little too suspicious for the events to happen too close together after all. But at the same time, she couldn’t lay off for too long, or she’d lose momentum. If Nozomi was going to stubborn, she had to wear her down.

But she also had bring out the big guns.

Subtly, it seemed, had failed. The illicit allure of the towel you knew was barely holding on, one loose and hastily tucked piece of cloth the only barrier to complete nudity, hadn’t been enough to get Nozomi to object. And the domestic, comfortable charm of an oversized shirt with the tantalizing extra of glimpses of a cute pair of Nico’s panties had barely seemed to phase her.

So it was time to get serious. No subtlety, no niche appeal, just full on sexual.

And what better way to go full on sexual than just walking out of her room in her underwear?

This time, surely, she’d get Nozomi. Even with her buddha-like patience, Nozomi couldn’t ignore something _that_ outrageous when clearly even the towel thing had unsettled her. She _had_ to admit this was weird.

Nico, of course, had picked special underwear for the occasion.

She’d debated over which pair for quite a while. Her first thought had been to go all out and wear something _really_ sexy. Full on lace, with a garterbelt and everything. The sort of thing you’d wear if you were draped on a bed covered in rose petals, scented candles in the background and a rose between your teeth. In the end, though, she’d decided that would be a little _too_ obvious. Sure, she was going all out, but she was still trying to maintain the basic fiction that all this was laziness or disregard rather than direct action. The idea was that she was coming out in her underwear because she hadn’t bothered to put on more clothes. That was kind of a hard sell if she was going to be wearing the kind of underwear that you didn’t tend to put other clothes on over.

So it had to be something that she’d actually wear on a normal day. That narrowed it down a _little_ , but Nico still spent half the night trying to pick a specific pair. It couldn’t be anything too cutesy, obviously. She was still seething about _that_ particular comment. It had to be _mature_ underwear. Something that reminded Nozomi of just how much she _had_ changed since highschool. But it still had to look natural…

In the end, she finally settled on a pair. It was a somewhat simple black affair, that Nico decided was unassuming enough not to be suspicious, but sufficiently sexy to ensure that Nozomi was knocked off her feet. Ha. That’d show her to underestimate the beauty of a former idol!

Right. Okay, casual.

Just casually open that door and walk out in front of her crush wearing nothing but her underwear so that Nozomi could tell her how uncomfortable it made her.

Actually, that was starting to sound kind of like a nightmare…

Before she could think too hard about that,  Nico pushed open her door and wandered out of her room.

“Morning Nozomi,” she said, walking over to the living room where Nozomi was resting on the couch. “Have you seen my pink blazer?”

“Good morn-glrk.” Nozomi’s sentence died on her lips and a strangled noise came out instead as she stared at Nico, her mouth hanging open.

Ha. Mission successful.

“Hm? What’s up, Nozomi? Have you seen it or not?” she asked, keeping her triumphant look off her face for the moment and playing dumb. “It has to be around here somewhere…” Nico turned to glance around, not-entirely-coincidentally giving Nozomi a view of her butt.

“Grrfk.” Nozomi made another strangled noise before managing to pull herself together enough to speak. “N-No, I haven’t seen it.”

“Hmm,” Nico said. Then she _really_ went for it. She stepped forward a half step and committed to the most ridiculous over the top part of this who plan. Making sure was in front of Nozomi and squarely in eyesight, she bent over to get on her hands and knees to peer under the couch.

Nozomi let out a noise that could only be described as a _whimper_.

“Hmm, it doesn’t look like it’s down here,” Nico said, wiggling her hips a little and trying not to grin. Not that there was any chance that Nozomi was looking at her _face_ right now.

Nozomi made a squeaking noise.

“Is something the matter, Nozomi?” Nico asked innocently, glancing up at Nozomi. Then she blinked at looked again.

It wasn’t like she’d never seen Nozomi blush, but she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen her this red. She was trying to focus on her phone, but clearly failing. Even more bizarre, though, was when she spoke.

“Nothing’s the matter, Niccochi,” she said, her voice _unbelievable_ level. “I don’t think your clothes are likely to be under the couch, unless you’ve started a habit of stripping in the living room.”

Impossible. Completely, utterly, entirely impossible. Nozomi was blushing so hard that she looked like a tomato on top of a particularly busty scarecrow, but she was still talking calmly and subtly teasing Nico.

How could Nozomi be this stubborn?! God, she’d thought _Maki_ was bullheaded,  but this was a whole new level.

“Damnit, Nozomi, you don’t fool me!” Nico said, pointing accusingly at her. Nozomi’s blush faded a little, and she looked surprised.

“...What do you mean, Niccochi?” she said, the intal pause saying a lot more than the token response that followed.

“Come on, Nozomi,” Nico said, crossing her arms. “You’re _never_ this blushy, and you’ve been squeaking like an oily hinge whenever I turn my back, and you’re going to pretend you don’t even care? Just admit it already!”

 _Oooh, I’m Nozomi, I’m so wordly and enlightened that partial nudity doesn’t bother me!_ Yeah, right.

Nozomi sighed and hung her head. “Alright,” she said, sounding a lot more deflated than Nico expected. Geez, it wasn’t _that_ big of a deal. Sure, Nozomi liked to play the worldly, unshakable vixen, and Nico would be lying if she said that wasn’t a _little_ attractive, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be weirded out by totally unneeded partial nudity, right?

“I… should have told you.”

“Yeah.” It would have saved Nico a lot of time and embarrassment if Nozomi had just come clean, that was for sure.

“I just…” There was a faraway look in Nozomi’s eyes, mournful but slightly wistful at the same time. “I was afraid. I thought… I thought if I didn’t say anything, at least I could be near you. And that was enough for me.”

...Wait a minute.

“When you asked me to move in with you, well…” Nozomi sighed. “I should have known it would lead to trouble eventually. But how could I say no? It was like a dream.”

She flashed Nico a sad little smile. “But I guess it’s time to wake up.”

Nico was… a little lost, she had to admit. This seemed to have gotten a lot heavier than hanging around in bath towels, all of a sudden.

“I guess I might as well actually say it, then,” Nozomi said. She took a deep breath and met Nico’s eye. “Niccochi, I’m in love with you.”

“ _What._ ” It wasn’t the most eloquent response, and if Nico was thinking a little more clearly, she would have considered the fact that it wasn’t exactly what someone would want to hear in response to a confession. But she couldn’t help it. This was like having a conversation with your mother about doing dishes and her suddenly blurting out that you were half dragon. “I just wanted you to admit it was weird that you kept running around the house in states of undress!”

“What?” Nozomi said, blinking.

“You keep like, lying around the living room in your towel and not wearing pants and stuff and it was driving me crazy!”

“Then…  you didn’t…” Nozomi frowned. “Oh.”

“What the heck. What the _fuck_. This whole time!” Nico turned to face the wall and slammed her head into it. It hurt more than she expected. “Ow.”

“Are you alright, Ni-”

“Ever since highschool, I’ve been agonizing over stopping you from noticing that I like you and you liked me back _this entire time?!_ ”

Nico whirled around and pointed accusingly at Nozomi. “I want my ten years of anxiety back!”

She had expected some kind of clever response from Nozomi, some little riposte or deflection. Instead, Nozomi started to tear up.

“Really?” she asked. Her voice wasn’t like normal. It was wavering and timid, all her normal confidence gone.

“What?” Nico replied, caught completely off guard.

“Do you really… also love me?”

“I said I did, didn’t I?” Nico grumbled, flushing and looking away. Before she could react, Nozomi was pulling her close, clinging tightly to her as pinned Nico against her.

“Hey, knock it off!” Nico grumbled, struggling in her embrace as she flushed even redder. Nozomi was still taller than her, and Nico was getting a face full of boob.

“No,” Nozomi replied cheerfully. Her voice was back to normal. Well, except that she sounded a lot happier than normal. Jeez. Maybe she really had been worrying just as much as Nico.

“Come on, you’re suffocating me here,” Nico protested, but Nozomi’s grip was like iron. When the hell did her arms get this strong?!

“You said you wanted me to pay you back for all those years of anxiety, right?” Nozomi asked. “Well, here’s my down payment, Niccochi. Ten years of confirming I love you should pay it back, right?”

Nico stopped struggling. At least if she was being pressed against Nozomi like a lucky commuter on a packed train, Nozomi couldn’t see how red she was turning. “Hmph. The great Nico Ni is generous, but you don’t rack up debt for ten years without having to pay interest.”

“Oh? Is that so?”

Nozomi’s voice had changed again, taking on a suspiciously innocent tone. A rather _familiar_ tone. Nico had the distinct feeling that she’d stepped into a trap.

Nozomi suddenly released her, and Nico took a cautious step back, eying her warily.

“I seem to recall you not saying anything about this being in love either, Nicocchi,” Nozomi said, giving her an exaggeratedly disapproving frown. “And then in end, you _still_ didn’t confess until after I did.”

Uh oh.

“W-Well…” Nico said, scrambling for an excuse. Nozomi spoke again before she could find one. Not that she would have had one anyway.

“So,” she said, smiling mischievously at Nico. “I think it’s only fair that you pay me back as well.”

“Fine, fine,” Nico said, sighing in relief and smiling back at her. “Ten years of confirmation plus interest, right?”

“Oh, no, Niccochi,” Nozomi said, her smile widening. “I’d like you to pay back my ten years of sexual frustration. Oh, we could start now, you’re already most of the way undressed!”

 


End file.
